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“You know you don’t have to tell them,” Theo says, not for the first time.
Liam cuts himself off in the middle of his third largely self-directed assertion that it’ll totally be fine and rolls his eyes, but he’s still playing with Theo’s fingers over the console and Theo thinks he’s cute when he’s huffy, so he isn’t terribly offended. “I know, you’ve only told me, like, a hundred times. I want to.” He looks over at Theo, eyes gone all big and earnest, and Theo would swear before a judge, jury, grand tribunal, whatever, that he’s physically incapable of not leaning over the console to kiss him. He wouldn’t even be lying, for once.
Liam smiles when they break apart, somewhere between shy and mischievous. “I mean, not that the sneaking around hasn’t been hot and all, but…”
“Oh, I get it,” Theo says, and he hears how fond he sounds. It’s terrible. “You just want to tell them so you can rope me into your PDA kink.”
Liam sputters, flushing even as he says, “I do not have a PDA kink.”
“Oh, really? Because I remember—”
“Oh, my God, I was sixteen and I’d never dated anyone before, give me a break,” Liam complains. Theo looks at him and considers pointing out that Liam isn’t even two years older now than he was when he was making out with Hayden in all kinds of public locations.
Decides against it, ultimately. Call him egotistical, but he doesn’t necessarily want to draw too many parallels between himself and Liam’s ex-girlfriend, doesn’t want to think that he’s some kind of placeholder or replacement. Liam would be pissed at him for thinking like that, anyway; he’d made that abundantly clear early on, when Liam was shifting nervously after kissing him for the first time and Theo attempted to reassure him by saying It’s okay, I know this doesn’t mean anything.
It worked to eradicate the nerves, at least, but only because Liam went from awkward to angry in about two seconds.
“This is important to me,” Liam says now, and Theo can’t fight the small smile that breaks across his lips. “I’m not gonna keep it a secret just because Stiles wants to fight you behind a Denny’s or whatever.”
Theo’s chest feels overfull, but he tries not to let it show as he retrieves his hand from Liam’s to start the truck. “Alright, Romeo. Let’s go, we’re already late.”
Something about the way Liam looks at him tells Theo he sees right through him, but he’s getting better at being okay with that.
He’s less sure than Liam is that his pack will be completely fine with the revelation that Liam has been secretly dating him for almost three months now, but it’s not like he hasn’t done worse to them than falling for Liam, so he doubts this will be the straw that breaks the back of Scott’s patience. Besides, Liam still has the pieces of Kira’s sword hidden away somewhere, minus the piece he handed to Theo—almost sending his sister’s heart into cardiac arrest before Liam stammered his way through a heartbreakingly earnest explanation that he wanted Theo to have it to ensure the sword could never be reassembled—right before he kissed him for the first time. Scott—or, more realistically, Stiles—can’t send him back to the skinwalker prison whether he deserves it or not.
So, no, this probably isn’t going to go well, but it can’t go badly enough to actually worry Theo.
By the time they get to Scott’s house, Liam’s phone has buzzed with several back-to-back texts from Stiles complaining about his tardiness, despite the fact that they’re only a few minutes late. As he pulls up to the sidewalk and parks, Liam exhales and turns to him.
“Ready to do this?” he asks, eyes alight with nerves and anticipation both, and Theo quirks a smile at him.
“Here goes nothing,” he says, and reaches over to unbuckle Liam’s seatbelt.
Mason says, “Hey, guys,” when he sees Liam coming into the living room, and Theo can’t help the nugget of warmth that settles in his stomach when he realizes Mason couldn’t have seen Theo walking behind Liam when he said it, but knew to expect him anyway. He’s still not used to the idea of it—being part of a unit, a matched set. That Liam’s best friend sees Liam and automatically looks for Theo, too.
Most of the pack is scattered around the living room, with Scott, Stiles, and Malia sharing the couch and Lydia curled up in the armchair, Mason and Corey sitting cross-legged on the floor nearby.
“Hey, glad you guys could make it,” Scott says, before he’s cut off by a loud groan from Stiles.
“Come on, Liam, did you have to bring him? This is a movie night, not the psycho killer convention.”
Theo rolls his eyes. Stiles talking badly—if justifiably—about him has long since lost its edge, since the rest of the pack tends to ignore him anyway. It happens now, Mason and Corey glancing up at Theo with matching looks of mild exasperation and both Lydia and Malia appearing unimpressed. Scott just sighs.
At his side, Liam’s scent spikes—not with anger, like it usually does, but with anticipation, and as Liam sucks in a quiet breath, Theo realizes what’s about to happen.
“I mean, he’s my boyfriend, so I kinda did have to bring him, yeah.”
Well. He supposes Liam had never said he’d be tactful about it.
Theo looks over at him, and Liam meets his eyes, shrugging unrepentantly. He allows one corner of his lips to tip up in a tiny smile, amused in spite of himself.
There’s silence for a moment, and then Mason says, from the floor, “I knew it.”
“Oh,” Scott says, taken aback, but he rallies quickly. “Uh, congrats, guys, when did you—”
He cuts himself off when Stiles stands up from the couch, and if he had been blustering before, he isn’t now. There’s genuine anger written all over him, on his face and in his scent.
Stiles says, “Tell me you’re joking.”
“I’m serious,” Liam says, lightly, though Theo can feel him tensing at his side. “We’ve been dating since March.”
“Since March? God, are you—Liam, you can’t seriously think he cares about you!”
“Hey,” Theo says, short. It’s a warning Stiles doesn’t heed, shooting Theo a brief glare before returning his attention to Liam, who is starting to smell like anger, too.
“He does care about me,” Liam snaps. “And guess what, I care about him too. It kinda comes with the territory.”
“Do you even hear yourself?” Stiles demands. “He cares about you? Wake up, Liam! He tried to kill you!”
“He’s changed.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard this little song and dance before, and guess what? It’s still bullshit! No one changes that much, especially not him.”
“Stiles,” Scott says, beseeching, but Stiles waves him off.
“He doesn’t do anything without an ulterior motive,” Stiles says, full of venom. “Working with us against Monroe, sure, whatever, it helps him cover his own ass. But this? Convincing you to date him? I mean, God, Liam, how many times are you gonna fall for this crap? Was getting you to try to kill Scott not enough to warn you off? Who do you think he’ll use you to hurt this time?”
“Stiles,” Scott says, sharp this time, but it’s too late.
Liam flinches, and as the smell of shame begins to permeate the room, Theo is, quite abruptly, furious.
“Don’t take this out on him,” he says, and he had almost forgotten how cold his own voice could sound. “You got a problem with me, fine, I get it. But leave Liam out of it.”
Stiles laughs incredulously. “Leave him out of it? You’re the one who brought him into it, you manipulative asshole. You’re the one who’s messing with his head again.”
Theo can’t help but scoff. “I’m flattered that you have so much faith in my acting skills, but Liam’s not the idiot you apparently think he is if you really think he’d fall for it if I was trying to manipulate him.”
“I’m not questioning his intelligence,” Stiles snaps. “I’m questioning your capacity to give a shit about anyone other than yourself.”
Theo shakes his head, and he can feel the unpleasant smile tugging at his lips. “Would you be questioning it if I said I changed for Scott?”
Stiles blinks, visibly taken aback. He recovers quickly, though, and the anger is still there when he demands, “Wha—”
“That’s how it usually goes, right? Someone goes after all of you, Scott wins them over, shows them mercy, whatever, and then everyone gets along? Would you believe me more if I played that angle? Tell me, Stiles,” Theo demands, and he must have moved forward at some point, because he’s right in front of Stiles when he says, “Why are you so convinced Liam’s not worth changing for?”
Behind him, Liam sucks in a short, soft breath, and Theo breaks his furious staring contest with Stiles to turn his head. Liam stares back at him, eyes wide and surprised. Too many emotions are clouding his chemosignals for Theo to get a solid read on him, and if Theo has fucked this up irreparably, he’d rather delay that conversation for as long as possible, so he turns away.
Stiles is sputtering, when Theo looks back at him. “Hang on, that is not what I said.”
“It’s just what you meant?”
“You—”
“That’s enough,” Scott says, forceful enough that Theo knows without looking at him that his eyes are red. He can feel the shiver of power, of alpha, crawling along his neck, and fights the instinct to drop his gaze to the ground. “Both of you.”
Theo holds Stiles’s gaze for another second, two, before he takes a step backward and nods to Scott.
“Stiles, you need to let this go, man,” Scott says, gentle but firm. “It’s not our place to tell Liam who he can and can’t date.”
“What, are you serious? Scott, come on, you really buy what he’s putting on?”
Scott looks at Theo, appraising, and Theo holds his breath, realizes what he’s doing, and lets it back out.
“I don’t think he’s putting anything on,” Scott says, and turns back to Stiles. “I know you weren’t around after Liam brought Theo back, but he really is different now. I didn’t wanna believe it at first either, okay? But he’s not the only person in this pack who used to be our enemy.”
And that—
That surprises him.
Slip of the tongue, Theo assumes. He’s pack-adjacent at best, an ally and, at least to Mason and Corey, something like a friend, but he’s definitely not pack.
“It’s not the same,” Stiles says, bitterly enough that Theo knows he’s realized he isn’t going to win this argument.
He steps forward again, stares him down until Stiles meets his eyes.
“I don’t care if you like me, or trust me, or forgive me,” Theo tells him, quiet. He knows how he sounds: dangerous. “But I do care about Liam, and if you really can’t see how that’s possible, you’re not as smart as I thought you were.”
Stiles’s jaw works, and he looks away. Theo takes that as his cue.
“I’m gonna head out,” he says. “Scott, thanks for the invite.”
It hadn’t strictly been an invitation, but when he called Liam, he’d said you and Theo, which was as good as. A matched set, like Mason’s greeting had implied.
“You don’t have to leave,” Scott tells him weakly, but Theo waves him off.
He moves toward Liam, and Liam just watches him, wide-eyed.
Quietly, he says, “I’ll wait in the car.” He touches Liam’s wrist briefly, then moves past him into the entryway. Nobody stops him.
He makes it outside before the noise starts, everyone talking over each other, and even the snippets he catches of Lydia berating Stiles aren’t enough to slow him down as he makes a beeline for his truck.
He has one hand on the driver’s side door handle when he hears the front door open again.
“Theo!”
Theo turns, and Liam is spilling out of the house, practically tripping over his own feet as he sprints across Scott’s front lawn.
Instinct has him bracing for impact just before Liam slams into him.
The force of the collision still sends him stumbling a step, his back colliding with the side of his truck, but he doesn’t care, because Liam follows him back, his hands moving to Theo’s neck, his hair, dragging Theo down as he surges up and kisses him.
There’s no stopping the noise that breaks out of him. Liam kisses him hot and fierce and open-mouthed, and it’s all Theo can do to keep them both upright as his head spins. He had caught Liam’s weight with his hands on his hips, and he slides them both up Liam’s waist, over his back, can’t decide which parts of Liam he most wants to touch, because Liam is kissing him; Theo essentially just told his pack to fuck off and Liam is kissing him, desperately, is pressing forward like he can’t get close enough, even with their bodies plastered together from lips to ankles.
“You asshole,” Liam says, but his eyes are bright and he’s smiling, soft and a little disbelieving. “Months of insults against you, and it takes Stiles saying something shitty to me for you to snap? And then you just left, like you didn’t just—”
He shakes his head, a bewildered laugh falling from his lips, and pulls Theo into another kiss. “No one,” Liam murmurs, “no one has ever—”
Liam kisses him again, slow and lingering, and Theo wants to drown in it, in him, but eventually, the need for oxygen forces them to separate.
“So,” Theo says, in the scant space between their lips. “I take it you’re not mad.”
He probably deserves the slap Liam delivers to his chest.
“Oh, no, I’m definitely mad,” Liam says, but he makes no move to pull away from Theo or otherwise disentangle himself. “Like I said, you just walked out after you tore Stiles a new one defending my honor and I had to chase you down to kiss you for it, so.” He grins. “Definitely mad.”
Theo reaches up to brush a strand of hair out of Liam’s eyes, and Liam tips his face into Theo’s hand. His smile goes soft, and he’s radiating so much contentment that Theo almost doesn’t notice the suspicious lack of noise coming from the house.
Abruptly, Theo realizes that he never heard the door close behind Liam.
He drags his gaze reluctantly back up to Scott’s house and has to stifle a groan when he sees the whole lot of them crowded in the doorway, Scott holding one arm out to prevent anyone from spilling out. He tries to disguise it as an awkward wave when he meets Theo’s eyes, and Theo sighs, resigned.
When he looks back at Liam, he’s smiling sheepishly up at him.
“I hate you.”
“No, you care about me,” Liam teases. “You think I’m worth changing for, you think I’m smart and ama—”
“I think you’re an idiot,” he interrupts, but after a quick glance over Liam’s shoulder to where his pack is still doing a terrible job of pretending not to eavesdrop, he leans in and, hesitantly, kisses him.
When he pulls away, Liam chases him back until Theo puts one hand on his chest to stop him.
“And maybe those other things, too,” he says, quietly enough that only Liam can hear him. Hopefully. Liam is just about the only thing Theo isn’t ashamed of, but the pack doesn’t need that kind of ammunition against him.
Liam’s pout turns into a blinding grin.
At normal volume, Theo says, “And you said you didn’t have a kink for PDA,” and laughs when he hears Scott badly stifle a snort.
Liam flushes deeply and swats at Theo’s chest again.
“I changed my mind. You were right, I didn’t need to tell them, because I’m breaking up with you, asshole—”
Theo doesn’t need to listen to his heart to know he’s lying, but he still smiles when he hears it skip a beat.